The wolf population continues to grow in “the badger state.” Story in the Green Bay Gazette. It’s getting close to 600. The state is now taking over management.
Wolves have been treated much more gently in the Great Lakes states than in Idaho, Montana or Wyoming, and I think it’s really too bad that three animal rights groups have sued to stop the delisting.
It certainly doesn’t help us in Idaho and Wyoming where wolves have been killed almost from the start for minor livestock depredations (there have been a couple big ones), and where Wyoming wants to basically kill all the wolves outside Yellowstone. Idaho’s new governor wants to kill 4/5 of the Idaho wolf population, which is about the same size as Wisconsin’s. Anti-wolf extremists can point to this lawsuit and say conservationists are never satisfied, when we would be thrilled in Idaho to have the kind of management Wisconsin is planning.
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Ralph Maughan
Dr. Ralph Maughan is professor emeritus of political science at Idaho State University. He was a Western Watersheds Project Board Member off and on for many years, and was also its President for several years. For a long time he produced Ralph Maughan's Wolf Report. He was a founder of the Greater Yellowstone Coalition. He and Jackie Johnson Maughan wrote three editions of "Hiking Idaho." He also wrote "Beyond the Tetons" and "Backpacking Wyoming's Teton and Washakie Wilderness." He created and is the administrator of The Wildlife News.
How is it Ralph, that those who reserve the right to determine wolf densities consistent with their values and businesses within the borders of their sovreign states that do not agree with your vision of “acceptable” wolf densities are “extremist”?
It isn’t black or white ..loves wolves–hates wolves Ralph, it’s about wolf densities and who gets to decide.
The use of the word “extremist ” is self serving and completely political and subjective.
Did you ever pay up on your bet of a free dinner with that reporter from Bozeman (Todd ???) about the Y-stone N. range elk herd going extinct in 3 years? I believe that was made back in ’03? I was just out there on the northern range, and I saw lots of elk…
“Extremist” is not subjective as Ralph used it. Desiring to killed 80% of the wolves is considered extreme. The whole anti-wolf crowd could be considered extremeist because their views and goals are so radically opposite of what everyone else thinks, including most people wh odo not like wolves.
“The use of the word “extremist ” is self serving and completely political and subjective.”
I’d be willing to bet you don’t see any irony in your statement above, do you Bob?
To all that want to keep the wolves alive. Next time you send your kids or grandkids outside to play and you have the wolves come in your yard and walk off with one of your kids. I truly think that we have to many wolves in wis. and we need to start to thining them out before they thin us out…….
You are entitled to your opinion, but I do hope you realize that kids are far more at risk from their neighbor’s dog, or even from their neighbor, than they are a wild wolf. Wolf opponents have long portrayed wolves as threats to human safety. Senator Burns of Montana even predicted a child would be killed within a year of the ID/MT/WY wolf reintroductions. Twelve years later the kids are still safe, the wolves are being wolves, and the Senator is unemployed.